


seven minutes

by fireyicegirl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: in which the stab was tony's downfall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 07:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15552243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireyicegirl/pseuds/fireyicegirl
Summary: Tony Stark has 7 minutes to live.





	seven minutes

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry.

Tony Stark had 7 minutes.  


That was how long it would take for the stab wound to kill him. 

Tony - no, Iron Man was strong. 

His armor was decades ahead of any of that on Earth, but it was centuries behind that of space technology. But Thanos was stronger. Thanos was always going to be stronger, he possessed five out of the six infinity stones. No, now he possessed all six, because Strange had given up the Time Stone for Tony. And now Thanos was the most powerful being in the entire universe, there was no stopping him. He had become godlike and everyone else had become helpless against his powers. 

This was the endgame. 

They would lose, and half the universe would cease to exist. Half of all life was about to be demolished, slaughtered, killed, erased, and Tony felt the weight of that on his chest. This was his fault. 

And as he laid on the ground, the blood seeping from his wound, staring into an unknown sky, he was strangely calm. It was almost as if his life had been leading up to this. 

  
Tony Stark had 6 minutes.  


He opened the faceplate, he wanted to see things with his own eyes, not through a screen. He looked up at an unfamiliar sky and tried to picture his own. The soft whirls of fading white clouds against a blue no technology could recreate. The tan sky was nothing like his own. 

Tony turned his head to look at those around him. 

Only the blue one was left. Everyone else was gone, turned back into the dust they had once come from. How many others were gone? How many more had met their doom on this day because Tony could not do more? 

The universe was ending and it was Tony’s fault. 

  
Tony Stark had 5 minutes.   


“Get up, you are the universe’s only hope, Iron Man,” The blue one said. 

Tony would have laughed if the blood was not beginning to fill his throat. 

Tony Stark, Iron Man, was not the universe’s hope, Tony Stark was the universe’s destruction. All he had ever done was put people and planets and everything in between in danger. He was a failure, and a powerless one at that. 

What was a man in a can to a god? 

Hope. 

Quite a fickle thing. 

  
Tony Stark had 4 minutes.   


The blood was tickling his throat, the whispers of death were getting louder in his ears, the pool of blood was warm beneath him. It barely warmed the coldness seeping through his body. He could no longer feel the pain from the wound, his body instead chose to grow numb. He was not thankful, he deserved to spend the last moments of his life in pain as those others did. 

If only F.R.I.D.A.Y. was active. Tony would have her call Pepper, much like in Manhattan, to give her a final goodbye. He had just left her there on Earth, left her as he promised he would never again, alone and afraid for him. He had no idea if she had survived the snap, and he supposed he never would. 

Unless there is another life after this one, Tony suspected he would never see her again. 

He thought back to their last words exchanged. He should have listened to her, he should have stayed on Earth and protected it, instead of running to space to instead send his planet to its doom. 

He could almost laugh about his last real conversation with her. 

He did not deserve a child, not when he could not even keep Peter safe. 

  
Tony Stark had 3 minutes.   


The numbness began to spread, and the hands on his shoulders were not felt until the blue one was harshly shaking him, screaming at him to get up and fight, to not lie down and die. 

But there was no use in fighting anymore. Tony could see no reason to get up and fight for his life. 

The battle was lost, half of the universe was lost. It was true that the war had just begun, but there was no room on the battlefield for Tony Stark. That was the job of the Avengers, and Tony Stark never qualified to be on the team, anyway. 

  
Tony Stark had 2 minutes.   


A tear slipped out of his eye. The last attempt at any emotion from his body, his tired, tired body. His eyes began to lose focus, and he knew he was running out of time. But no one could stop death, one can only stand back and appreciate it. 

He had spent so long running from death, spent so long letting others die for his own worthless life. It was time for it to end. The cycle he was caught up in must end. 

The blood was clogging his throat, and he began to choke on the very thing that had been keeping him alive. 

Sleep was calling to him. 

  
Tony Stark had 1 minute.   


Tony Stark regretted many things in his life. There were things he was not proud of, there were things he could have done differently. Things he should have said and should not have said. 

But the past was the past, it was behind him, far, far behind him. And in front of him was a story he would never see unfold, for he would not be there to witness it. 

He only hoped someone would save the universe when he could not. 

Tony then accepted that everything must come to an end, and that his story was no different. He was no longer turning to a new chapter, but finishing the book. And maybe this wasn’t his time, maybe he was supposed to get up and continue fighting as he had every second of his life. 

But the call of death was more welcoming than the piercing screams of life. 

And so, he closed his eyes, and imagined the breathtaking skies of Earth, and everything he was grateful for. 

Tony Stark then breathed his final breath. 

And in that moment, Earth truly lost its greatest defender.


End file.
